myrmidon

noun

1. A soldier or a subordinate civil officer who executes orders of a superior without protest or pity (sometimes applied to bailiffs, constables, etc).

   “Antonia bustled round the ransack'd room, / And, turning up her nose, with looks abused / Her master, and his myrmidons, of whom / Not one, except the attorney, was amused; […]”

   “Tobias (to Jonas Fogg, manager of a madhouse): "I will die ere I submit to you or your vile myrmidons."”

   “When the day came round for my return to the scene of the deed of violence, my terrors reached their height. Whether myrmidons of Justice, especially sent down from London, would be lying in ambush behind the gate; […]”

   “He cared no more for the Devil and all his myrmidons, for he kenned brawly he was damned.”

   “My heart wells up in admiration of the man, as I think of his participation in the memorable struggle of Homestead. He fought the Pinkertons, the myrmidons of Capital.”

2. (Greek)One of a fierce tribe or troop who accompanied Achilles, their king, in the Trojan War.

   “The Myrmidons were the soldiers of Achilles, in the Trojan war. From them all zealous and unscrupulous followers of a political chief are called by that name, down to this day. But the origin of the Myrmidons would not give one the idea of a fierce and bloody race, but rather of a laborious and peaceful one.”

name

1. (Greek)The ancestral hero of the Myrmidon tribe, son of Zeus and Eurymedusa.